Should school buses have seatbelts?

Question

I believe they should

Answer 1

Yep, they should have seat belts, at least for two people. And, background checks for school bus drivers.

Answer 2

While I can see where you would say that they should, think about this...School buses are safer than any other car on the road. There is no safer way to transport a child than in a school bus. Fatal crashes involving occupants are extremely rare events, even though school buses serve daily in every community - a remarkable 8.8 billion student trips annually. Every school day, some 440,000 yellow school buses transport more than 24 million children to and from schools and school-related activities. Said another way to give perspective to the huge magnitude of pupil transportation, the equivalent of the populations of Florida, Massachusetts and Oregon ride on a school bus twice every day - almost always without a serious incident.

Modern school buses (those manufactured after April 1, 1977) are equipped with more safety equipment than any other vehicle on the road. This is by design because safety regulators and state pupil transportation officials always err on the side of providing an extra margin of safety. The size of the school bus alone gives it an important advantage in all but the most catastrophic circumstances.

Answer 3

Adding to some very good answers above, it should be noted that, usually, what hurts and kills on an impact, is not the speed of the vehicle you are in, but what is sometimes called the "second impact". Think of a wooden box nailed to a skate board with a mouse inside speeding at 30 m.p.h. towards a wall. The first impact is when the box-skate hits the wall, that does nothing to the mouse but makes the box stop almost instantly so that, when the mouse hits the inside of the box, it will be traveling at 30 m.p.h. and the box will be at zero. Thus, the mouse feels the second impact only and it happens to be at the total speed of 30 m.p.h.

Next, imagine tying a 10 lb weight to the skate as well and speeding it not againstt a wall, but agains several toys laying on the floor. When it hits the first one, lets say its speed drops from 30 m.p.h. to 25 m.p.h., sending the mouse (possibly you will need a second mouse for this experiment) to a 5 m.p.h. "second impact" against the box's inner wall. Painful, but not deadly. As the skate board hits other toys (or even that wall) and is brought down to a full stop, the mouse will be spread against the wall already and won't crash against it. The bus is like that heavy skate and the toys are like other cars.

Maybe a better solution would be simply to turn the seats backwards and avoid "second impact" altogether. A surprising thing about a very "safety first" country like the US is that school busses don't have a helper. Here in Brazil (or at least in Rio), all school transportation must have an aid to watch over the children so that the driver can concentrate on the road only.

Answer 4

Newsflash: School buses in NYC boroughs are required to have seatbelts and occupants must wear them. The New York State Education Department mandates statewide background/criminal history checks for drivers. NYS DMV implemented the 'S' endorsement (in addition to 'P'=passenger endorsment) for all drivers of school buses. The system is tightly regulated by the state.

The greatest risk for kids is getting hit as pedestrians when exiting/entering the bus BY OTHER VEHICLES that pass stopped school buses.

Answer 5

NO NO NO... .

School buses are designed so that if an accident happens they will be pushed forward into the cushioned seat back in front of them.. this is actually more safe than having 50 mph pressure on ones abdomine and whiplash from being held in place... the biggest risk without a seat belt is the 1% chance that the bus will flip .. compared with the 98% of daily injury of having them.

Besides kids play rough and fight with them creating more injury with that hard buckle....

Answer 6

Yes I just wonder how many children Congress may want to see die before anything is done about seat belts on school buses. It's a shame it takes tragedies to get something done. Aren't the children of tomorrow aloowed to grow up without being damaged or killed in a bus accident. Think Congress about this.

Answer 7

As crazy as this will sound, it is really a case-by-case basis. Although we cannot backtrack to the accident and say, "Yes, this bus needs seatbelts for when the kids crash today", it depends on the type of accident to say whether the bus should or shouldn't. In a high-speed accident or roll-over, the child would have to be secured. But in a fire, explosion, or water-involving accident, like the bus goes in a river (like on Simon Birch, a great movie), the child needs to act fast, and small children, especially, may panic and have difficulty unbuckling the seatbelt. So...it depends on the scenario.

Answer 8

I have always wondered why the school buses don't have seat belts, they have made it law to buckle up in cars, why wouldn't they want people to buckle up in a bus especially school buses, the way they carry on today about so much child safety this is one thing I don't get.

Answer 9

I've actaully thought of this! But the reason why is becuz if this was a required item inside a school bus, the driver would have to check every student, and i guess the district don't have time for things like this. If it were to get into an accident with a smaller car, it wouldn't do much damage overall anyways.

--Rich

Answer 10

I believe that all buses should supply seatbelts, the requirement being if they go on highways or freeways. If only local roads with low speed limits, I don't believe it should be necessary.

Answer 11

Most newer buses do have seat belts, now it's just a matter of enforcing it. How is one bus driver supposed to make sure that 40 screaming kids have their belts on?